Criminal Case in Spain While Living Abroad: Defence Without Travelling

If you live outside Spain but a Spanish court has opened criminal proceedings that concern you, the first instinct is often to hope the matter will fade away with distance. It will not. A Spanish investigation can move forward, set a trial date and even reach a verdict while you are abroad. As criminal defence lawyers handling transnational proceedings, we explain how a Spanish case reaches you abroad and how to build a defence without setting foot in Spain until it is strategically sound to do so.

How the Notification Reaches You Abroad

A Spanish case does not simply appear at your foreign address by ordinary post. Notification abroad follows formal channels: within the European Union, judicial cooperation instruments and the European Investigation Order; beyond the EU, mutual legal assistance treaties, letters rogatory and consular channels. The practical consequence is that service can be slow, irregular or defective — and a defective notification is itself a line of defence.

There is a decisive detail in Spanish procedure. Under Article 775 of the Criminal Procedure Act (LECrim), at the first appearance the investigated person is required to designate an address in Spain — or a person to receive notifications on their behalf — with the express warning that a notice sent to that address will allow the trial to be held in their absence in the cases set out in Article 786 LECrim. If you already designated such an address, the court can reach you through it even while you live abroad. If you never appeared, the court will attempt service abroad or, failing that, may issue a requisitoria (a formal call to appear).

Two things matter enormously here. First, whether the notice was valid: service made to an outdated Spanish address, to a person no longer authorised, or through a channel that did not actually reach you may be challenged. Second, the clock: many notifications carry a short deadline to appear or to answer, and from abroad the letter often arrives late. The moment you learn of the case — a notice forwarded by family, a letter at an old address, a call from the consulate — the priority is to fix the exact dates before any of them expire.

Appointing a Lawyer From Abroad: Power of Attorney and Apostille

You do not need to be in Spain to instruct a defence lawyer. Spanish criminal procedure allows you to appoint a lawyer (abogado) and a court representative (procurador) through a power of attorney for litigation (poder para pleitos). This can be granted from your country of residence in two usual ways:

1. Before a Spanish consulate abroad, which acts as a notary for these purposes; or
2. Before a local notary in your country, followed by the Hague Apostille so the document is valid in Spain, and a sworn translation into Spanish where the notary does not work in Spanish.

The Hague Apostille is the certification that authenticates a public document issued in one member State of the 1961 Hague Convention so that it produces effects in another, without further legalisation. Once the power of attorney is apostilled (or issued at the consulate) and translated, your lawyer can act in the proceedings on your behalf: examine the file, request documents and take procedural steps — all while you remain abroad. The right to defence and to counsel from the moment the accusation is communicated is guaranteed by Articles 118 and 767 LECrim.

Personación: Formally Entering the Case Without Travelling

With the power of attorney in place, your lawyer can carry out the personación — the formal act of entering the proceedings as a party. This is the single most important early step. Being properly a party means the court must notify your representative of every relevant decision, you gain access to the file, and you can propose evidence, challenge the accusation and be heard before any measure is decided. Entering the case does not require your physical presence; it is your procurador who appears on the record.

Formal entry also changes the tone of the case. A defendant who is present through counsel, engaging with the court, is treated very differently from one the court believes is evading justice.

Once you are a party, your lawyer can also gather and put forward evidence that supports your version — documents, communications or records that show, for example, that a transaction was genuine or that you were not where the accusation places you. Evidence located in your country of residence can be obtained there and produced in the Spanish proceedings, and where formal collection abroad is needed, judicial cooperation channels such as a European Investigation Order or a letter rogatory may be used. Building this record early, before the trial is scheduled, is far more effective than reacting once a date is set.

Giving Evidence by Videoconference

Certain acts — above all your statement — may still call for your participation. Spanish law expressly contemplates remote participation. Under Article 731 bis LECrim, the court, on its own motion or at a party's request, may allow a person taking part in criminal proceedings (whether as accused, witness or expert) to act by videoconference or a similar system that permits two-way, simultaneous transmission of image and sound, for reasons of usefulness, security or public order, or where appearing in person would be burdensome or prejudicial. Living abroad is a classic reason why appearing in person is burdensome.

Videoconference is granted on a case-by-case basis and depends on the court, the type of hearing and the nature of the act. It is not an automatic right, and for some acts the court may still require personal attendance. This is precisely why the request must be reasoned and filed by your lawyer in advance, invoking your residence abroad and the practical burden of travelling.

What Happens If You Ignore the Summons

Ignoring a Spanish court from abroad is the worst option. If you fail to appear despite proper notice, the consequences escalate:

• Trial in absence. Under Article 786 LECrim, in the abbreviated procedure the trial can be held without you where you were correctly summoned and the penalty sought does not exceed two years of imprisonment (or fines and other penalties of any duration). A conviction can follow while you are abroad.
• Requisitoria and declaration of rebeldía. Where your presence is required and you cannot be found, the court issues a requisitoria; if you do not appear within the set time, you are declared in default (rebeldía) under Articles 834 and following LECrim, and the proceedings may be suspended and archived until you are located.
• Arrest warrant and extradition. Rebeldía typically comes with a search-and-arrest order. Inside the EU this can become a European Arrest Warrant; outside it, an extradition request. See our guides on fighting a European Arrest Warrant in Spain and on defending extradition of international clients.

None of this is inevitable. The way to avoid it is to engage early through a lawyer, so that the court sees a defendant participating in the process rather than fleeing it.

Coordinating With Local Counsel Where You Live

When part of the case — evidence, arrest risk or an extradition request — plays out in your country of residence, defence works best on two coordinated fronts. Your Spanish lawyer leads the core proceedings in Spain; local counsel handles anything happening on the ground where you live, such as opposing an extradition or a European Arrest Warrant before the local courts. The two must share the same strategy: what is argued in Spain and what is argued abroad have to be consistent, because a concession on one front can undermine the other.

The goal is a single, unified defence run across borders: the Spanish proceedings addressed from Spain by your lawyer, and any local component addressed by counsel in your jurisdiction, both moving to the same plan.